The Innkeeper

The explosion lasted a couple of seconds at most, but its devastation could not be understated! It was not just Lex's clothes that had ceased to exist, but so had the robots closest to the epicenter!

Cut and frozen over and over again, the closest of the felines had been reduced to nothing but frozen metallic dust. In fact, even the walls of the corridor seemed to have suffered from the battering, though they were only slightly worn.

But while the epicenter was a zone of utter destruction, further down along the hallway Lex could see the diminished effects. The closest layer consisted of metallic dust that the robots had been ground into. A small distance away from it was the largest region, which consisted of robots which had been chopped into the small frozen pieces.

But farther along, the pieces got bigger and bigger until whole robots finally started appearing. These were also destroyed, as was evident from how they were lying still, but only a small distance from them were robots that were heavily damaged, but still functional.

It was here that the second effect of his attack began to show. Not only were the robots hurt, their internal mechanisms were frozen. Even if they suffered no actual harm, having their components frozen prevented them from moving properly.

If there were any unharmed robots left, they were hidden from sight behind the injured one. Speaking of whom, they were still making their way towards Lex and Alexander, slow as they might be.

"The number of robots is a little ridiculous, don't you think?" Lex said, completely ignoring his nudity. He could not, in any way, show that he felt embarrassed or it would only get worse.

"Each floor of the pagoda is targeting one of our weaknesses. Every time you show some new strength, the pagoda alters something in the next challenge to limit your strength as much as possible."

Lex paused and realized that Alexander was right. On the first floor, he was given a seemingly random challenge, but on the second floor, he faced multiple enemies instead of the one who had excellent coordination. The purpose seemed to be to prevent Lex from dismissing a single, unprepared enemy the way he had done on the first floor.

After he made use of evisceration to get rid of those enemies, the enemies he faced afterwards all lacked souls! Moreover, although Lex had not tried it, he had a feeling that they would be able to resist the teleportation effect of his golden key if he were to use it.

Then, when he used his ridiculous strength to finish off the spider, he faced a seemingly endless horde of smaller enemies. Although his strength was still overwhelming, it wasn't as much of a clear advantage against their endless numbers.

If the pagoda kept getting harder in such a targeted fashion, how was anyone supposed to reach up to the top floor? Not only did this information bring a new perspective about how difficult it was to Lex, he also gained a new respect for Jotun. Lex himself had a number of unfair advantages, yet even he was suffering so much trouble. He could only wonder how exactly Jotun overcame the pagoda.

Still, it wasn't as if Lex was at the end of his rope. If he insisted on continuing, he bet he could continue to climb a few more floors. The reward he got for clearing each floor was also nice. But… he wasn't about to go fight a war naked!

"Let's just get this over with," said Lex as he picked up the frozen frame of a broken robot and casually fashioned it into a makeshift undergarment. Alexander nodded, and refrained from making a comment.

For better or worse… Lex had killed more robots than him and had taken the lead. Such an overwhelming advantage had washed his initial drive away.

With the immense momentum of the robots broken, defeating the remainder was only a matter of time. It was more tedious than anything and by the end of it, Lex was fairly certain that there had been exactly 2000 of them.

While he did not bother counting them himself, his mind was strong enough. The way he did not need to count when he saw a pair of enemies, he did not really need to count for his mind to automatically come up with the appropriate number. This meant that there was 1000 for each of them.

Not bothering to debate against the logic of a lone man fighting 1000 enemies with the pagoda, Lex grabbed the last robot, but did not destroy it yet.

He turned around and began walking towards the other side, where Alexander was killing the remaining robots on his side.

"I have a question for you," Lex said as he leaned against the wall near Alexander, not really helping him finish the rest. In fact, the reason he was holding onto one of the robots was so that the current trial wouldn't end until he was done.

"If my intuition is correct, and it usually is, you're cultivating all three paths, correct?"

Alexander didn't show a reaction, but his guard went back up. Although he and Lex had worked well together did not mean they were allies.

"Perhaps. Why do you ask?"

"Because I am the same, all three paths. It got me wondering, that red stuff you were using earlier, was that from one of the so-called 'true path' techniques or professions? I've never seen anything like it."

Alexander narrowed his eyes and looked at Lex, letting his flying blades do the work while he continued the conversation.

"I'm not sure if you know this, but it's quite rude to inquire about someone's techniques."

"Oh right, sorry," said Lex as he held up his arms, showing he was harmless. "I just thought that, you know, since we're both on a similar path, we could help each other. I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff I know that you haven't been exposed to yet. For example, have you developed your soul sense?"

Alexander did not immediately reply, which caused Lex to grin.

"Oh right, shouldn't ask about techniques. I was only mentioning because soul sense is hard to come by, but it's a really great tool. Very useful."

As if to demonstrate his point, Lex spread his soul sense and covered Alexander for a single moment. The teenager was secretly alarmed when his instincts suddenly warned him that he was surrounded by an unknown force, but fortunately, it disappeared as quickly as it came.

Yet the problem wasn't that there was a force that enveloped him, but that he didn't know how to counter it!

"I haven't really gotten my hands on any true path techniques or professions yet, but I tend to be exposed to some very… unique situations. As a result, I can usually grow in strength very quickly. But as a result, I really end up lacking in more traditional training and experiences."

"You want to do an exchange?" Alexander asked, quickly understanding what Lex was getting at. "You do know that even if I want to, I can't share classified techniques."

"Yeah, I guessed as much, but that doesn't mean you have nothing to share. Besides, the Midnight Inn's library has an increasing amount of techniques, so I can always find something there. But, your training and insight are things I can't find in a book."

Alexander did not immediately reply, as he went over the proposal in his mind. The fact that this Lex had appeared out of nowhere clearly indicated that he had some unusual experiences. Although his moves were very clean and efficient during the fight, they also betrayed his lack of systemic training. For him to be able to grow so strong so quickly, the things he had to offer might really be worth Alexander's time. If he could gain the same boost, he'd be able to exhibit a lot more strength than Lex himself. Not to mention, if Alexander was able to develop a defense as strong as him… even he could not estimate how lethal he would become.

"You don't have to answer immediately," said Lex and he straightened up. "Think about it and get back to me. You can reach me through the Inn. Just tell your personal hologram to deliver a message to Lex Williams."

Lex crushed the robot in his hand, just as Alexander's sword killed the last of the robots on his side. Two sets of staircases appeared, and Lex began to climb one without wasting any more time.

He stopped, however, on the last step before the next floor. Through this step, he could choose to exit the pagoda. If he took another step, however, the next trial would begin.

Lex chose to exit the trial without any regret. Even if he didn't get to experience more floors, his 6th sense told him that Alexander was likely to agree to his deal.

That was good enough for now anyway.